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Technology Improvement Plan
Lewiston Middle School Technology Improvement Plan ' ' Developed By Elisa Whittier ' April 2019' Lewiston Middle School Mission Statement: The Lewiston Middle School, a partnership of students, parents, staff, and community members, is committed to children and will empower them with the skills and knowledge through comprehensive, innovative, and diverse educational experiences. Technology Vision of Lewiston Middle School: Our vision for Lewiston Middle School is aimed at an integration of technology for staff and students to reflect the ever changing and evolving technology educated society. Technology is utilized in our daily activities and more in the learning process than ever before. In order to keep pace with these changes in our students and society, we as educators must adapt and incorporate new ways of sharing information. This means not only in the education process, but also in the communication process between all involved. We want to ensure that our students are ready for the next step in the education process and further, such as technological skills needed for success in high school, college, and the workplace. Their ability to utilize technology as a tool is the utmost goal. If students have a solid foundation in this area, it will assist them with problem solving skills in life and allow them to grow even further towards lifelong learners. Plan for Improvement ''' '''New Hardware Acquisition: Apple TV Cost: $200 (for 32 GB) Value to the curriculum: An Apple TV allows the user to project what is on the iPad/laptop for the whole class to see. Teachers can use an Apple TV to demonstrate apps or websites from their own devices. Students can follow along on their own device. Students can also share their device screen using the Apple TV. This can add lots of value to the curriculum. For example, students can wok on health problems on their device, and then can share their viewpoints with the class by connecting to the Apple TV. Students can discuss the various answers and talk about how they came about getting those answers. This level of discussion promotes critical thinking and enriches the curriculum. Possible Drawbacks: The biggest drawback of Apple TV is the price. It is a little expensive considering most of what the Apple TV can do is already possible in the classrooms. For example, iPads/laptops can be displayed with the use of an Apple TV (they can be connected to project using a VGA cord and a dongle). However, using a dongle does not allow the devices to be portable, so the teacher would need to stay in front of the classroom. It would also be inconvenient to have students come up to the projector to share their device screen with the class instead of doing so from their seat. Apple TV makes this much easier by allowing students to share their screen remotely from their desk. Strategy to Assess the Effectiveness of the Acquisition: Teachers can assess the effectiveness of the Apple TV by noting how easily students are able to follow along and follow directions on their own devices. Teachers can also assess the caliber of class discussion brought about by the sharing of student work on the devices. Teachers can also seek input from their students (by means of an electronic survey) about the effectiveness of using the Apple TV in the classroom. New Software Acquisition: Inspiration/Kidspiration/Inspire Data Cost 50 Kidspiration Licenses : $1,400.50 50 Inspiration Licenses: $1,400.50 50 Inspire Data Licenses: $1,400.50 Total: $4201.50 Value to the curriculum: Inspiration (grades 6+) and Kidspiration (grades K-5) are designed to aid in brainstorming, outlining, creating infographics and other visual maps. They can even be used as a presentation tool. Inspire Date is published by the same company, but is designed for data, manipulation, analysis, interpretation, and display. All three of these softwares add a lot of value to the curriculum as they can be used in any subject area. Science and Health might import a picture of a microscope and use the software to label the parts. Social Studies students might use it to create a flowchart to show the process it takes for a bill to become law. English students might use it to create a word web while brainstorming ideas for a writing assignment. Math students might use it to create a Venn diagram to compare integers and rational numbers or might use Inspire Data to analyze data. The ability to create these graphics electronically, will help the students stay organized and will keep them engaged in their work. Possible Drawbacks: All three softwares do not allow for collaboration. So, of students want to work on a project together, they would have to do so by sharing a single computer. Another drawback is the software is needed to read the files created by it. So a student would not be able to save his work on a flash drive and continue it at home, unless he has the software installed on his home computer. Strategy to Assess the Effectiveness of the Acquisition: To assess the effectiveness of this software, teachers can evaluate the quality of student work after students have had a chance to use the software to prepare and study. For example, after using Inspiration to brainstorm and organize a research paper, teachers should notice an increase in quality on the final paper. Teachers should also note a deeper understanding of the curriculum as students use the software to keep their thoughts and notes organized. New Portable Device Acquisition: Go Pro Cameras Cost Smatree Battery 2 (3 Pack) 5 GoPro Cameras: Total: $1000.00 Value to the Curriculum: There is an endless amount of possibilities when it comes to Go Pro Cameras in the classroom. For example, Go Pro Cameras can allow alternatives to linguistic responses and it is real world. Students can also use the Go Pro camera to take pictures during class and then embed these pictures into their lesson notes. Additionally, to improve student learning, lessons can incorporate the use of the Go Pro Cameras. For example, the class Go Pro Cameras can promote student creativity when they are used to create videos and podcast about curriculum taught in class. These student created videos will become valuable study tools to strengthen understanding of the material and help students prepare for upcoming assessments. Possible Drawbacks: Some of the disadvantages of the Go Pro Camera, there tends to be a little difficulty in learning how to use the camera at first. The settings system is not always easy to navigate through and could set up some roadblocks for students. There is no control over the zoom, so shots may sometimes be missed due to location. Often playback can cause some issues, as there is no ability to look at clips you have taken. Strategies to Manage the Portable Device: The Go Pro Cameras will be housed on a small charging cart in the back of room 332. At the start of each period, students will get their assigned Go Pro Camera from the cart and will take it to their seat so they have it available for the lesson. At the end of the lesson, students will return their Go Pro Camera to the designated location on the cart and will plug it back into the charger.For the first month, Go Pro Camera usage will be focused on the basics. Students will learn the basic functionality of the camera (i.e. how to turn it on, all the settings, etc.) and strategies for troubleshooting the Go Pro Camera. Next, students will learn how to stay organized, keeping in mind that other students from other classes will be assigned to the same camera and will therefore have their files stored on the device as well. Towards the end of the year, students will have more flexibility to choose how they want to use the Go Pro Camera in class. Strategy to Assess the Effectiveness; At the end of each month the students will fill out an electronic survey in which they will share their experience working with the Go Pro Cameras. This will be their chance to give honest feedback about what is working, what is not working, and what ideas they have to make it work better. In addition, student grades on various assessments (formative, summative, standardized, etc.) will be compared to grades received by previous years’ students to note any overall class changes (hopefully positive in nature) that might be attributed to the use of Go Pro Cameras. Of course there are way too many variables at play to say with complete confidence that it is the cameras that caused these changes, but it is likely that the cameras would come into play. Potential Safety Concerns About the Use of the Portable Device in the Classroom; There are a number of steps Lewiston Middle School is implementing to ensure the safety and security of students using school Go Pro Cameras. For example, the school’s technology educators will be conducting a Go Pro Camera usage class for all students who will be using these devices. The students will sign a contact on appropriate use and violations of the contract will terminate a students ability to have access to the Go Pro Cameras in the future. New Cloud Based Acquisition: Google Apps for Education Cost Free Commercial, Freeware, or Open Source Free Value to the Curriculum: Google Apps allows users to backup their work and access it from any device, anywhere there is an Internet connection. It allows users to share files and collaborate on documents while keeping a history of all edits and changes. Google Apps also eliminates a paper trail which makes it more environmentally friendly. All of these advantages could have a profound effect on Lewiston Middle School’s curriculum. Google Apps will also allow the teacher to view how each student in a group contributed to a project to ensure all students were active participants of their group. Possible Drawbacks: A disadvantage of all cloud computing is its reliance on the Internet. If an Internet outage occurs, teachers will not be able to access real time versions of shared documents. Similarly, if the server that host the cloud has technical difficulties, teachers will not be able to access their work. However, these types of outages are rare and are usually fixed quickly. Another disadvantage to cloud computing is some of the document applications do not have all of the same features as their software counterparts. For example, Microsoft PowerPoint allows users to create an outline from a presentation, but Google Slides does not have that feature. Luckily, most of the “missing features” are minor in nature ad are not enough to discourage use of the cloud. Strategy to Assess the Effectiveness of the Cloud or Web-Based Acquisition: Continuous professional development will be provided throughout the next five years to train teachers on all of the differences of Google Apps for Education. Teachers will have the opportunity to ask questions and adjust the professional development to better meet their needs. During this time, students and teachers will be invited to offer there opinions about the effectiveness of the Google Apps for Education through the use of online surveys (created in Google Forms). Potential Safety Concerns About the Use of the Cloud or Web-Based Acquisition: To keep student work and information secure, it will be important to provide each student with a unique username and password. The school can also restrict assess to the Lewiston Middle School clouds so only users with a Lewiston Middle School login can gain access. In addition, it will be important to educate our students on how to stay safe in a cloud environment. This information can be integrated into the Lewiston Middle School technology curriculum and can be delivered annually in the technology classes. Technology Workshop: Mobile Learning In Your Classroom- Getting Techie With It Cost Free Value to the Curriculum This workshop contains the following sessions: Implementing and Managing Mobile Devices Must Have Mobile Apps for Classroom Management 10+ Activities that will have Students Moving with Mobile Devices Some Amazing Mobile Apps that Changed How I Assess Students 15 Free Mobile Apps for Collaborative Projects Introduction to Coding on Mobile Devices Teachers will use what they learn in the workshop to enhance the technology they are already using in their classrooms. Curriculum will come alive as students explore the apps and activities presented in this workshop. Strategy to Assess the Effectiveness of the Workshop: At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be asked to share what they learned and how they plan to implement what they have learned into their classroom. Participants will be encouraged to form a study group to support one another in the implementation of the ideas presented in the workshop. A Plan for staff Sharing of best of Practice Technology Use After several weeks participants will be invited to reflect on this implementation to share what worked well and what didn’t work well. An Electronic Resource Sharing Venue for Staff to Share Resources: Lewiston Middle School will begin to use Live Binders as a venue for staff resources. Live Binders is a web based collaborative bookmarking tool. The administration will set up several Live Binders so each subject area can have its own. Within each subject area binder, there will be a tab for each grade level, and then within each tab will be sub tabs with resources. Administration will give editing rights to all the teachers so the binders can be put together collaboratively and continue to grow and develop throughout the years. While the Live Binder is really designed for web resources, documents and other non-web resources can be uploaded and shared as well. Live Binders also has a feature that allows for annotation which can be used by a teacher to make notes about how they use a web tool or resource A School Schedule for Computer Maintenance and Back-Up Procedures: Teachers need to the importance of knowing the basics of computer maintenance and back-up procedures, so that they can reduce the chances of future technology issues from occurring. Teachers depend on technology to work when they need it to make the best use of their teaching time. When technology fails, valuable teaching time and student time has been wasted. With maintaining “healthy” computers, teachers can be proactive and avoid many of these technology mishaps. Even with the most up to date, well maintained technology devices, some main fail. Teachers should use a checklist to stay up-to-date with daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks for maintenance and back-up procedures. On a daily basis scans should be done for viruses, deletions of internet temp files. Weekly, updates on software, data backups, empty desktop recycle bin and delete cookies. On a monthly basis, run a disk clean up and defragmenter, and uninstall unused programs. Yearly have tech support clean the inside of the device and renew antivirus subscriptions. Back-up plans must include opening System Preferences, open Time Machine/Launchpad, click “Select Disk” in order to select location of back-up, click the on/off switch to turn Time Machine/Launchpad on (Time Machine/Launchpad will do automatic back-ups and cleaning.) References Horowitz, P. (2012, March 4). 4 Simple Mac Maintenance Tips. Retrieved April 3, 2019, from http://osxdaily.com/2012/03/04/mac-maintenance-tips/ Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac. (2015, October 8). Retrieved April 3, 2019, from https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250